Iconic pop art on display at city gallery

l CAIRNS CBD

| Nick Dalton

A SELECTION of iconic print works by two of the most famous masters of the American pop art movement –Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein –are on display in Cairns for the first time.

Cairns Art Gallery has partnered with the National Gallery of Australia to bring the exhibition, which includes major prints on loan from the National Gallery of Australia, including works from Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup II 1969 series, a self-portrait from his Artists and Photographs 1970 series, in which the intensity of the artist’s gaze becomes the gaze of an observer rather than a sitter, and effectively defining him as a celebrity in his own time, alongside Lichtenstein’s celebrated works including Nude with blue hair 1993, and ... Huh? 1976.

Gallery manager Kelly Jaunzems said in the mid-1960s, artists in London and, a little later in New York, embraced bold, simple, everyday imagery, and vibrant block colours in their work to create slick images using mechanical methods of production so that the medium of the artwork became as important as its ‘message’.

“In so doing they sought to destroy the divide between high and low, or commercial and fine, art,” she said.

“In 1962, Andy Warhol began to transition from hand-painted to photo-transferred art. Searching for sub- jects, a friend suggested that he paint something everybody would recognise, ‘like Campbell’s soup’ which resulted in a series of 32 canvases, each looking the same but never identical.

“For Roy Lichtenstein, a contemporary of Andy Warhol, pop art authorised the use of imitation and appropriation in art.

“Referencing commercial and popular culture icons, such as Mickey Mouse, and using Ben-Day dots and mechanical processes of printmaking, Lichtenstein’s work uses cliché and irony to challenge notions of high art in a contemporary world of popular culture.”

Ms Jaunzems said ‘Nude with blue hair 1993’ was one of the artist’s most important graphic works on paper and is a key work within the exhibition.

“The work demonstrates Lichtenstein’s extraordinary ability to experiment with innovative printing methods, enhancing the volume of his cartoon-like female figure and her hair through the application of shading, known as chiaroscuro, that uses contrasts of light and dark tones to achieve a heightened illusion of volume or depth,” she said.

“The gallery’s partnership with the National Gallery of Australia and its Regional Initiatives Program has made it possible to bring the best of international art to Cairns and present the exhibition free of charge for everyone.”

The gallery is open seven days a week with free entry to all visitors.